Subject: Weekly Women's Update: The Affordable Care Act, West Wing Week, and More

Friday, August 5, 2011

Weekly Women's Update

Welcome to the Council on Women and Girls Weekly Highlights! This week, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services, announced new guidelines that will eliminate barriers to services that can help keep American women healthy by ensuring affordable, quality healthcare for all women. Everyone wants their family to be healthy. A key component of this is ensuring that mothers, daughters, and sisters have access to the preventive services they need.

Also this week, the President reached a bipartisan deal with Congress which sets the stage for balanced deficit reduction. This week President Obama thanked the American people for reaching out to their elected officials during the debate, and stressed that this compromise guarantees more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction, and will ensure that as a nation we live within our means, while still making key investments in things that lead to new jobs, like education and research.

If you have friends or family who would like to join our Council on Women and Girls efforts, please have them click here.

President Barack Obama makes a statement to the media in the Rose Garden of the White House after House and Senate passage of the debt ceiling bill, Aug. 2, 2011. (Official White House Photo by Samantha Appleton)

Highlights

There have been a number of good posts on whitehouse.gov that lay out the details and facts of this plan, answer questions you may have and dispel any myths about the plan...

The Affordable Care Act Helps Women Stay Healthy The Affordable Care Act helps make prevention affordable and accessible for all Americans by requiring new health plans to cover recommended preventive services and by eliminating cost sharing, such as deductibles, copayments or co-insurance, for many preventive services. The law also requires insurance companies to cover additional preventive health benefits for women.

Protecting Women from Unlawful Mortgage Lending PracticesBringing a new child into a family and buying a house are two momentous and happy occasions for any family. When HUD’s Office of Fair Housing & Equal Opportunity (FHEO) learned that some mortgage lenders had policies or practices that make qualifying for a mortgage more difficult for pregnant women or parents on parental leave, we leapt into action.

INFOGRAPHIC: Where does our national debt come from?To explain the impact various policies have had over the past decade, shifting us from projected surpluses to actual deficits and, as a result, running up the national debt, the White House has developed a graphic for you to review and share.

Putting Our Veterans Back to WorkWe have an obligation to make sure our veterans are able to navigate this difficult labor market and succeed in the civilian workforce. That’s why the President today announced a comprehensive plan to ensure that veterans have the employment support and assistance they deserve. We also wanted to make sure you saw this great post by Dr. Patty Hayes which includes links to resources for women veterans – please share with your friends and family.

Champion of Change Know someone who is doing extraordinary things to make a difference in your community? Nominate them to be a Champion of Change. We’ll consider your nominations as we feature people who are bringing about change in their communities on the White House website to share their ideas on how to win the future.

West Wing Week Welcome to the West Wing Week, your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This week, President Obama announced a bi-partisan compromise to reduce the deficit and avoid default (infographic), announced a historic fuel efficiency standard that will save American families money, welcomed the crews of the Space Shuttle Endeavour and International Space Station expedition 26, held a cabinet meeting, and celebrated his 50th birthday. That's July 29th to August 5th, or West Wing Week.